Nadezda Mosusova

The Staging of Film and Television Opera

pp. 58-61

The theatre man, the musician, even the amateur and lover of the musical theatre, have probably all noticed that regarding the presentation of opera on the screen - either the motion picture or video screen - the two media tend to be confounded and reduced to a common denominator, although, in spite of all similarities, they are characterized by some fundamental technical and terminological distinctions.

The screening of an opera performance and the telecasting (from the stage or from the studio) are two, or rather three, aspects of an essentially identical undertaking. The operatic telecast is the true counterpart (toute proportion gardée in view of the specific differences between the motion picture and video screen) of the filmed opera or an opera performance adapted for the film. In common parlance they are referred to as film and television opera.

The motion picture and television operas in the true sense of the word, are musical-dramatic works created specifically for these two media and thus cannot be treated on the same level because the "film opera" - as a genre - does not exist. The composer creates his work either for the operatic stage or, as is becoming increasingly common, for the television screen. But no one writes "movie operas". Such an opera, written in the motion-picture idiom (opera-film or film-opera), would belong to another field, where each individual work could be placed in a category of its own, sometimes close to the filmed opera might also exist.¹ The esthetic value of its individual genres might range from respectable stereotypes to great artistic achievements with the visual component on a par with the musical content, in which case the credit would go to the film director rather than to the composer. The same is largely true of the motion pictures based on great novels and plays.

It is from this angle that ingenious productions of filmed opera and opera written for television are considered in this paper. In either case, it is the best possible visual presentation, coupled with musical perfection, that ensures the artistic vitality of the work presented on the screen. This provides sufficient justification for putting an opera on the motion picture screen (here it should not be forgotten that screen versions of operas are loathed by some musicians and opera lovers just as much as the screen versions of literary works are rejected by literary men). In the case of opera produced for TV medium, the attractive visual quality helps the viewer-listener to grasp new, modern musical-dramatical works.

It appears that the majority of musicians are not aware of the importance of the visual component in operatic productions for the stage. Numerous examples could be quoted of adverse effect of inadequate staging on the musical side of an opera.²

Whatever the reasons for the failure of an operatic performance, the stage director, for all his arrogance, should be pardoned for at least some of the mistakes (in violating "Werktreue"), due to restricted acting abilities of opera singers. On motion picture and television screen, however, there is little excuse for the director in case of failure; that points to his inability to handle the potentially boundless opportunities for his artistic expression. It is true that an ever increasing number of successful film adaptatation of opera owes a great deal to their stage presentation past and present. The film versions of Wagner's Siegfried, Berg's Lulu or Strauss's Salomé, had as predecessors the superb productions of these works for the opera houses in Europe and America.

From this point of view, too, we find an exceptional example in Losey's brilliant film production of Don Giovanni, with Mozart's music excellently matched by the visual element. Joseph Losey could not make use of any specific model, because, as Günther Rennert, directing this most sublime opera of Mozart's, claimed there were always remembered great interpretations of the Don Giovanni role, but no spectacular performance of this opera as a whole.³ Talking of his personal experience, Rennert achieves that no stage director should feel ashamed if he fails to furnish an adequate framework for the musical "cosmos" of Mozart.⁴ Losey's artistic merit is all the more remarkable considering that in the staging or motion picture opera, the film technique can both be an advantage and a trap.

The director of a television opera can easily avoid such traps since he is dealing with a contemporary work and can turn to the composer for help. The author's suggestions will often prove invaluable. It is usual for the composer of a TV opera to view the possibility of a stage performance of his work, as well. The present day chamber and TV operas are so closely interrelated that their mutual influences deserve to be considered.⁵ In the Soviet Union, for example, numerous chamber operas have been produced (Scedrin, Holminov, Bucko), which could, without much alteration, be presented on television screen. In Yugoslavia, on the other hand, some inventive TV operas (Lhotka-Kalinski, Rajicic) could successfully be transferred to the operatic stage. The same is true of TV films and plays.

A characteristic liking prevails in contemporary chamber and TV opera for the monodrama (coinciding with similar tendencies in modern theatre). A preference for the same or similar topics is quite often evident. That Gogol's Diary of a Madman has in the last twenty years attracted the attention of an English, a Russian and a Yugoslav composer (Searle, Bucko and Rajicic),⁶ may after all not be purely accidental. TV screen, especially the close-ups, offer ample opportunity for an expressive and effective display in the musical monodrama of the inner world of the actor-singer, while the talent of the TV stage director and scenographer can be instrumental in establishing a closer rapport between the work and the public. Television, obviously, raises high hopes for the future of opera.

Footnotes:
¹ Rolf Liebermann (in his book Opernjahre, 1977, p.290) makes a distinction between what he calls the music film - Musikfilm (such as the well-known adaptation of Tales of Hoffmann and Bergman's Magic Flute) and the filmed opera - gefilmte Oper - which unlike "music film" keeps strictly to the original story and the score. [Return]

²This is resolutely confirmed by Rolf Liebermann (Musiktheater oder Stagione, Contemporary Music Theatre, Hamburg, 1964, pp. 29-30), the experienced manager of European prominent opera houses, who argues that his opera productions never failed on account of musicians (singers or conductors) but exclusively of stage directors. [Return]

³ G. Rennert, Opernarbeit, Inszenierungen 1963 - 1973. München, 1974, p. 239. [Return]

⁴ Ibid, p. 247. [Return]

⁵ L.G.Danjko, Notes to the Poetic of Opera, Tendencies of Style in Soviet Music 1960-1970, Leningrad, 1979, pp. 15-16. [Return]

6 Humphrey Searle and Jurij Bucko have composed chamber operas and Stanojlo Rajicic TV opera based on Gogol's story.[Return]

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Last modified: 08/01/03

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